Transportation
Created by javier o
Portugal 2007
Sun 07/08/07 (day 1)
New Journal Entry
Keyboard is different so if errors..oh well.
7-7-07 Travel from Phoenix to Philladelphia to Lisboa. Flight delayed due to strong head winds and inability to fly over the city before 8am in portugal...however flight was much quicker..6 hours instead of 8.
7-8-07 DAY of arrival at airport - on way to get gps...ºnever lostº we got lost. had lunch in a town where no english understoood - managed to get fish and potato and vegies for lunch...very good. treating us as royalty as they all think mary grace is ºbarbara bushº.
7-9-07 Sintra we toured castles where javier discovered his distant relative ' dom duarte was to be king of portugal. castles with tiled walls and walkways, marble paths, beautiful pools and gardens and views all the way to the ocean. Carriage ride through the old and new towns of Sintra...now we know why the roads are so narrow and cars very small here.
Breakfast in the mall in the morning ...they are open until 1130pm every day. queche, fruit, and stonggggg coffee. rolls and sweets are in abundance...no no. lunch is typically fish, potato, carrots, broccoli...all very good. all the fish have their heads in tact..hmmmm.
7-10-07 Estoril and Cascais - The beach is beautiful ' clear water...sail boats in abundance...as well as a few ºsitesº of the human variety. we walk alot '''it is warm today however the first couple days were cooler and very windy.
The younger generation 20ºs speak english well...the older generation..selective.
mary grace went to her first IKEA ' here...all the same...except for the blue berry soup. Bathrooms are generally separate only stalls for men and women with shared sink areas. wine in restaraunt is 12 euros in grocery store only 1.25. eating inside a restaraurant is generally less expensive than eating outside. kids are everywhere ....this is a kid friendly country..and all are having fun..and fun to be around...even Fernando.
harv loves to drive here as they give you a choice of speeds depeding upon the lane you are in...90km,80km,60km...you know which is his choice i am sure.
TRAVEL TIP #1 - When in Lisboa use the hand towel to wash your face. MG asked the front desk clerk for a clean wash cloth so she could was her face. The desk clerk assured that she had a clean face cloth. After much discussion we watch the facial expression of the desk clerk turn to concern as what MG thought was a face cloth is what the Portuguese use after they have use the bidet :-O Please bring your own wash cloth.
We had dinner at a fado house where we listen to a local Christina sing with a powerful and beautiful voice.
bom dia...until next cyber cafe. ..LOVE JO, JAVIER, AND MARY GRACE
Planned Activities
We had lunch down by the Tagus River where we had cheese, fruit, shrimp and wine.
Day 7 – Finds us in the four star hotel in Coimbra. We walk down around the corner where we find a local coffee shop. We had to stop in at five coffee shops before a local cook would make as an omelette sandwich with ham and cheese :-) She brought out our meal with coffee and melon. Our plan for the day is to leave Coimbra and see the sights of second largest city in Portugal, Porto. Driving in the old part of town is the most challenging yet. Many of the streets are under repair so are using the Never Lost unit more to get us to the general vicinity. It took us down a road that was closed for construction which required us to back out after we folded the side mirrors in so we could squeeze by. On the drive from the festival to the hotel we had to share a narrow street with two way traffic. We were going down hill with three cars in front and five behind and there was a taxi trying to make it up hill in the opposite direction. We were all pulling in our mirrors, driving on side walks and navigating past the poles with stop signs.
We found ourselves in a festival on the water front. The streets were all lit up, there were carnival rides for the kids and a free concert going on.
TRIP TIP – Eat at the local places where there are crowds. The food is better, the staff is friendly and the prices are reasonable. We had coffee on the river bank where the tourist were and the prices there three times what we had been paying and the staff was less than pleasent.
Day 8 – Awoke in Porto to the rain which feels strange as every day has been sunny and beautiful. We had breakfast in the lobby for five euros. Coffee, mixed fruit, yogurt and roll with scramble eggs, ham, and cheese on a roll. This was a American style breakfast which felt out of place in our new home of Portugal.
We finally have the Hertz Never Lost (Tom Tom) device down and can find the local tourist office in any town. We arrived in Fatima and visited the Chapel o fthe Apparition. We are on our way to Costa da Caparica to spend our final two days at the beach where the locals hang out.